Senate Breaks Logjam on Court

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously advanced U.S. District Judge Julia Gibbons’ nomination to the half-empty U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the first time a nomination has moved forward for that court in five years.

Only eight of 16 judgeships on the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati are filled. Gibbons’ nomination now goes to the Senate.

“I’m glad Judge Gibbons was on the agenda today and I hope that we’ll have the chance to approve other judges for the 6th Circuit,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after the 19-0 vote.

Gibbons has been praised by both Republican and Democratic legislators.

She has been a federal judge in Memphis, Tenn., since she was appointed in 1983 by President Reagan. And if confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first judge appointed to the court serving Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan since Judge Ronald Lee Gilman was confirmed in November 1997.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate committee, said the panel, while under Republican control, refused to move through former President Bill Clinton’s nominees for that circuit.

Paul Cassell, a nominee for a U.S. district judgeship in Utah, won committee endorsement Thursday but four rare negative votes were cast against him.

Leahy and Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin voted against Cassell.

Cassell, a University of Utah law professor, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to re-examine the Miranda warnings that police are required to give suspects. He lost, however, in a 7-2 decision in 2000 with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist writing, “Miranda has become embedded in routine police practice to the point where the warnings have become part of our national culture.”

Cassell argued that a 1968 law loosened the restrictions imposed by Miranda and allowed voluntary confessions to crimes to be admitted as evidence, even if suspects aren’t read their rights.

In his confirmation hearing, Democratic senators questioned whether he would be pro-prosecution in a criminal trial as a federal judge.

However, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called Cassell “one of the most qualified people ever nominated to the District Court bench.”